A transgender girl known as Jane Doe (because she is a juvenile) has been held in an adult prison, the York Correctional Institute for women in Niantic, for a month as of Saturday. She could be housed there for up to a year longer.

It is well past time that she is removed from York and placed in an age-appropriate setting where she can get the treatment and education she needs and learn to get along with peers.

@Josh Connecticut You've completely missed the point. She became the person she is today, alleged violence and all, because of the treatment she got from the state. If she's acting out, it's because of where the state placed her. DCF placed her with monsters who sexually and...

Jane Doe is wrongly placed because she's only 16 — a child. What's more, she hasn't been charged with a crime, let alone been convicted of one. People who haven't been charged or convicted of crimes shouldn't go to prison in a country of laws.

A seldom-used state statute permits the Superior Court to sign off on the transfer of a juvenile in the custody of the Department of Children and Families to adult prison if DCF proves to the court that it can't adequately care for the child.

The law was used — for the first time in 14 years — in this case. Jane Doe's lawyers are appealing the transfer to adult prison.

And they are understandably suing in federal court on grounds that her imprisonment violates due process guarantees in the state and federal constitutions and that it also violates the state law banning discrimination against transgender people.

Meanwhile, DCF, Jane Doe's attorneys and other parties are negotiating a settlement that would get the child out of prison and into a suitable treatment program. But the talks proceed at a glacial pace.

This is a difficult case.

The teenager has been by all accounts the victim of horrific sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Issues arising from her being born a biological male but identifying as a female complicate her situation.

She is prone to violence, having attacked staff members in several settings, although no charges have been filed.

But the state can't just shove challenging kids into adult prison if no crimes have been committed. Youngsters who have led troubled lives deserve better than that.

DCF needs to figure out — and soon — how best to keep and care for Jane Doe.

A lot of things have been said about me recently. Some were said at court and others were said in the news and by Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz. People might think they know me based what they hear, but they know nothing about who I am.

As a former Supreme Court justice and public defender, I know that it is the job of lawyers and advocates to put public pressure on government to help the people they represent. It is, however, also their duty to represent the facts truthfully and without distortion. In the case of the...

There is an old lawyers' adage: Never ask a question unless you know the answer. We are about to violate that sound advice by asking, why did the Department of Children and Families send an abused 16-year-old who has never been charged with a crime to a prison for adults?

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